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Fairway is Captured in India
Agra, India Buildings crowd together along the mostly narrow streets of this city, capital of the province by the same name. Former capital of the Muslim Mogul Empire from before colonial times, the city remains a center of art and architecture, focused on the splendor of the Taj Mahal, considered one of the greatest works of humankind. Electric street lights cast a yellow glow over the broad, paved avenues where the homes of the wealthy congregate, but much of the city falls into total darkness after the sun goes down, save for the glow from scattered windows. A puttering car occasionally rumbles through the streets, the infrequent engines the only sound besides the lowing of a few wandering cattle. Out at the town of Kaps, they're far enough away from Surat proper that the city's light pollution gives way to the much lesser light pollution of Kakrapar station. One of these countless stars glittering in the night sky seems to be getting closer. Several stars, in fact, seem to be getting closer. With wings swept fully forward to enable quieter flight, Fusillade tails after Shockwave with her engines almost idle. The bomber idly swishes through the air a few times, before prattling at Shockwave. <> She may or may not have an escort of several other aircraft on her wing. Outside, In a time of electric trains, hovercars and other various high tech nicknacks, the steady rhythmic chug-chugging of an older style locomotive might seem a little out of place in the middle of a modern nation. By default, a train seems to have a certain sense of nostalgic charm about it. Old locomotives are restored and displayed proudly, or as part of parades or other ceremonies. Even though the old coal burning types put out some measure of pollution, it is tolerated in light of an older time that is long since past in the hopes of never losing that charm of yesteryear. In the case of this train, nothing could be further from the truth, nor less charming. The armored, bulky form of Astrotrain's vehicular groundbased mode thunders along the railway tracks, currently hooked up to three cars he is pulling behind him. The cars are covered with thick tarps, and the area ahead of the train is lit up by the single headlight that pierces the darkness like a giant villainous eye. Coming in out of mountain ranges to the north of the city, the locomotive rumbles towards the town of Kaps, and the nuclear plant, hauling his load, and with litle to no concern for the locals or their laws, evidenced as he rumbles right through a residential area at a quickened pace that has him rolling through intersections before the caution barriers and flashing lights have even swung all the way down to block traffic from crossing the train tracks. With a resonant boom that shakes the pottery in the cottages of Kaps, wakes sleeping townsfolk and startles cattle in their pens, Shockwave falls out of the night and impacts on the road that cuts through Kaps leading from Surat to Kakrapar station. He steps out of the craters his feet have left in the road surface, casting a lurid purple glow of barely-filtered cerenkov radiation and emitting an ominous hum as he walks smoothly towards the nuclear plant. "Decepticons," Shockwave emits in his usual calm voice, albeit magnified many times to be audible over the surrounding countryside to the Decepticons as they approach the target, "attack." Outside, Windshear is flying to the side of Fusillade on this mission and stays quiet, in formation but when the order comes through to attack he brings his weapons on line and follows Fusillade as shes the lead jet. Pretty boy Windshear transforms into a Cybertronian pyramid/Tetrajet. CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" is traversing the Tapti River, content to stay silent and just do the chugging. Not open ocean, not as bad. Autobot intel had picked up the Decepticon hunt for chemicals, so Surat was on their list to keep an eye on. Sure enough, distress calls flood in, and this particular group of Autobots just happened to be in the area. Broadside pulls to a slow stop near the river bank... he's sure to draw attention, not exactly inconspicuous. Outside, Fairway has arrived in India, accompanying Broadside, Firestar, and Vince Larsen, in response to reports of another Decepticon isotope raid. He looks over Broadside's bow with a pair of binoculars to his optics. There's no missing or mistaking the boom that Shockwave generates as he plunges toward the Earth. "our information was accurate after all," he says, "the raid looks to be in progress. Disembark and engage with caution, Autobots." He hops over the side to pit the ground in a crouched landing. "Decepticons," he announces, "you shan't be successful THIS day. Concede and retreat." He fires a warning shot into the air. Among the other Autobots and allies present on Broadside's top deck, stands the red and orange female Autobot FIRESTAR. Don't let the curves decieve you, she's as tough and as ballsy as they come. "Just keep your eyes open, Fairway, and no gutsy moves." She warns, despite the extreme liklihood of her own potentially risky behavior. She also makes the leap down over Broadside's gunwhal, landing near the medic. "I've got your back." She adds, optics scanning the darkness for Decepticon threats. Combat: Firestar sets her defense level to Protected. Wing-waggling two times to Windshear as she surges forward, Fusillade begins sending down brilliant disruptor blasts on targets, lighting them up to show what should be attacked. The layout of the plant was similar to most, so fences go first to terrorize the workers into fleeing, and then the joints of roofing and walls to the main reactor building start getting weakened as they are peppered with blasts. Fairway announces the Autobots' presence, and the Lancer breaks off on her approach to the reactor building. "Uh oh! They're here extra early! Must've been a stakeout!" Vince was supposed to be on a 'vacation', in Germany! But hey, if the Autobots wanted an EDC pilot along for the ride, who was he to argue? He had been wanting to spend more time with the Cybertronians, anyway. But when the distress calls came flooding in, he wasn't far from the Headhunter, and it only took him a few moments to get airborn. The VTOL capable Talon class exo-suit was, so far, Vince's favorite, and despite the nickname this particular Talon had earned, he was more than pleased with it's performance. Headhunter? No, she'd just been waiting on the right pilot. And it appeared that pilot was Vince. As he lifted straight up from the carrier deck, he immediately started visually scanning for the Decepticons, and found them easily enough. He let Fairway do the warning, and made sure he was in a good position to offer air support for the Autobots. Flipping on the external speakers on the exo, he can't help but smile as he speaks. "Couple fliers up here. I'm moving to intercept them." Windshear follows Fusillade and starts firing his lasers where she points out, taking out the fences first off. "Then its all the more fun." he says when she comments the bots are here early. He recognizes Fairway and Broadside but resists the urge to fire on them as hes still concentrating on the targets Fusi pointed out. As the other Decepticons move in, Astrotrain continues to rumble through the town towards the plant itself. It's at a crucial point when the tracks would tack him swerving off towards the west that he drops any pretenses of being just another train on the move, not that a close glance would have fooled anyone otherwise. With his extra armored frame along with the gunports bristling from his hull, the triplechanger looks anything but civilian-built. The tracks no longer become a part of his approach as he literally leaves them, ripping the metal railway and bending it back like some stringy cheese snack as he leaves the cars he was towing behind as well, to crash uselessly into the countryside. Rumbling up a short hill towards the power plant, his huge form proceeds to smash through a fence, ignoring the efforts of a couple of security guards who fire their handguns uselessly at the armored train's hull. His course takes him through the major parking lot, crushing cars both new and old, including one that looks suspiciously like it should belong in the driveway of a certain 742 Evergreen Terrace. Shockwave steps over the fifteen foot high fence into Kakrapar Station's parking lot. Spotlights play over his inhuman angles, disregarded as he turns back briefly to sweep the long road down through the valley, the city, and the river beyond the city with his finely honed senses. "I have detected them. Their chance of success is low-to-moderate. Once we have breached the reactor containment building's inner shell a significant percentage of the Autobot and/or human respondents are highly likely to break off direct attack and attempt to contain and mitigate the inevitable disaster. Fusillade, Windshear, destroy the Autobots. Astrotrain, support them so far as you can while remaining relatively intact. I will give us access to the thorium core." Combat: Shockwave initiates a radar sweep of the area. Shockwave turns his attention back to the station, striding purposefully into the compound while armed guards bravely but futilely ricochet small arms fire off of his case-hardened outer hull. "Well done, Mr. Larsen." Fairway unsubs his rifle and advances toward the plant. "Broadside, your support from the air would be greatly appreciated, friend." He begins the precise and meticulous process of mentally preparing himself to face off against these Intimidating enemies. "My thanks, friend Firestar," he adds, "These are formidable foes. Prolonged battle is, of course, likely to grow riskier as it goes on. Better to focus on frustrating them to hamper their ambition and inspire a retreat." With this, he transforms and turns his attention to Shockwave, barrelling toward him with intent to distract him from his attack on the facility. Fairway drops forward onto his fists while his torso spins and his legs fold inward. His hood tilts up, head flipping back to disappear beneath it, and his arms lock into place at his sides. With a familiar, five-tone sound, Fairway transforms into a DeLorean DMC-12! Combat: DeLorean strikes Shockwave with his Drive By Distraction! (Grab) attack! CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" doesn't plan on doing a whole lot of smashing and crushing with that reactor around, so he stays in the river and awaits Fairway's orders. When he gets them, he grumbles. "Air. Yes, sir." With quite a large wake, he transforms into a dripping Hornet and decides to head after Fusillade and Windshear. Broadside shifts and folds into his F/A-18 Hornet mode. The Global Pose Tracker marks that F/A-18 Hornet has 'skipped' his action for this round. Rising to a suitable altitude to kick in the thrusters of the Headhunter, Vince takes a quick look at the ground-pounders and swears under his breath. Immediately following the swearing with a quick, silent prayer, he hits the afterburners and angles in towards Fusillade and Windshear. As he nears weapons range, he decides on a target, and decides that the bomber is a larger threat to those within the plant, and nearby, and locks his weapon systems. "Why don't you Decepticons just take the easy rode and retreat now?!" Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter sets its defense level to Fearless. Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter Jet strikes Fusillade with its Heavy Machine Gun attack! -2 Fire Rescue Truck takes a second to check on how many Decepticons are moving around, and where. Not the easiest task in the dark, but a big noisy jet firing purple disruptors all over the place? Easy to spot. "Ok, let's see how you fly when your tail is on fire!" She calls out, and with a flick of her wrist, she sends a twirling fireball up into the sky, hoping to catch the B-1R Lancer's tail in the blaze. The red truck flips up into the sleek femme Firestar. Combat: Firestar sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Firestar strikes Fusillade with her Pinpoint Plasma attack! -2 Fairway succeeds in getting Shockwave's attention, although perhaps not for long. Without looking behind him as he navigates through the buildings of Kakrapar station, searching for the reactor building with his X-ray vision, he detects Fairway's approach on his radar and reacts! All the fingers on his right hand flex to their full extension, then continue to flex until his fist is inverted. He reaches out to rip an air conditioner off of the roof of a building he's passing. His elbow inverts and his wrist swivels 180 degrees so that his arm is now a backwards-facing left arm instead of a forward-facing right, and thus adjusted, that arm hurls the air conditioner at the oncoming car before returning easily to its normal configuration. Combat: Shockwave misses DeLorean with his Non-Humanoid Counterattack attack! -7 Decepticon Battletrain has come to a halt within the parking lot, small tendrils of smoke rising up from several burning cars that were a result of his forced entry onto the grounds. Shockwave's transmission carries through, and the triplechanger grumbles a bit about having to hold back in this situation. That is, until he sees Shockwave himself coming under attack from an oncoming Autobot! "Heh, well here's some support then..." He grunts, the ground rumbling underneath as he starts to pick up speed once more. Somehow, without turning wheels, he still turns about and goes thundering towards the two, even as Shockwave hurls the air conditioner towards Fairway's path. Even as the Autobot no doubt displays some fancy evasive action, he then encounters a roadblock. Literally. In the form of the huge battletrain abruptly putting himself in the Autobot's path like a giant armored object, -inviting- him to crash into his dense side. "Whoops! Can't be havin none of that now, can we?!" Combat: Decepticon Battletrain strikes DeLorean with his Immovable Roadblock attack! -5 "Aight, you heard the mech, time to bust some Autobot heads!" Fusillade chirps out to Windshear. That meant drawing their attention -- and thankfully, meant less handling of the reactor's components. She is in mid-bank when Firestar roasts her -- not too surprising considering she truly is the broad side of a barn. "GAHG!!! Awesome, but AGH that hurts! That's a REAL firetruck down there, hahaha!" With plumes of smoke trailing from her scorched tailfins, she throttles up the level on her disruptor, and returns fire. Combat: Fusillade misses Firestar with her Tit For Tat (Laser) attack! Windshear banks away from the smoking fusillade and zeros in on Broadside. "Have you looked down lately, Broadside?" He rasps as he opens fire on the Autobot. Combat: Windshear misses F/A-18 Hornet with his Laser attack! "Your efforts are satisfactory thus far, Astrotrain," Shockwave intones, detecting the crunch of car against train from behind him. "I am summoning a reinforcement S.T.A.G. to hasten our victory and protect your eventual cargo." Air conditioners Fairway can handle. But locomotives? Not so much. As he dodges Shockwave's attack he runs straight into Astrotrain and crashes spectacularly His front bumper collapses like an accordian; his windshield explodes, and he springs into a clumsy transformation to try and recover. Sliding to a knee, he pulls his rifle and, with no witty comment to make, simply aims for Astrotrain and pulls the trigger. Fairway converts back to robot mode. Combat: Fairway strikes Decepticon Battletrain with his Scram Rifle attack! -2 Just seconds after he fired the Headhunter's primary machine guns, Vince watches a plasma burst streak out and strike the bomber, and chuckles. He's more worried, at the moment, about the airborn targets, so he's not paying any attention to the ground-pounders. Grinning to himself when the bomber chooses to return fire on Firestar, rather than him. Of course, the Autobot probably was more of a threat than an exo-suit, but that's what Vince had been anticipating. The other flyer also chooses to ignore him. Ahh, wonderful. That meant less damage he'd be taking. Keeping his targetting systems locked on the bomber, he lets Broadside deal with the other flyer. Swinging around behind Fusillade, a pair of small panels slide open on the underside of the fusellage and a pair of small lasers slide out, opening fire. "Yeah! Turn your back on the human. Smart move!" Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter Jet strikes Fusillade with its Laser attack! Seeing as Fusillade has plenty of attention, Broadside sets his sights on the locomotive below. Did he just crush Homer's car? What is Homer doing in India! The Wrecker dives towards Astrotrain, who is suddenly crashed into by Fairway! "Should've stayed on the tracks, A-train! WRECK N' RULE!" he bellows, contrails helixing as he twirls and makes to fire at him- But Windshear fires first. The Seeker's lasers miss his tailfin by a few feet. "Aww, it ain't that high, pfff." But Broadside descends just a little bit anyway. Hmm. He decides to fire on Windshear instead. Combat: F/A-18 Hornet strikes Windshear with his BEWWW (Laser) attack! Firestar isn't the swiftest of the rebel females, but being so much smaller than the vast Lancer flying around the power plant, it's not too hard to duck behind a razor-wire-topped wall for cover. "Well. The fliers can shoot down the fliers without me. I've got a cyclops to fry." She mutters, and skirts around the blast-scarred wall in search of ol' One-eye. She leaps up onto a low outbuilding, and spots Shockwave's familiar busty sillouette. Squinting, she focusses her plasma generators, and fires off a lancing stream of flames towards the former bland dictator of Cybertron. Combat: Firestar misses Shockwave with her Pinpoint Plasma attack! BEFORE: Nightbeat leans over the side of Broadside, dragging a sensor buoy. He exposits, "With these new sounding devices, we may be able to detect NCC! But the readings are kind of funny. Lemme take a loo-" Nightbeat leans over a bit too far while investigating, and he falls clean off Broadside. Glub. Now: Nightbeat washes ashore on the beach, like so much driftwood. He sputters, gets up to his knees, and looks up, taking in that the Decepticons are assaulting a nearby powerplant! "Blast, I'm late!" Nightbeat hunkers down into Porsche form and vrooms off toward the fray. Decepticon Battletrain really can't dodge at this range, what with being a big profiled train for Fairway to fire at. How could the Autobot miss? It would have been hilarious if he had though. The rifle's impact against his side is all but negligible, though some of his armored plating does superheat as a result, sliding free and crashing to the ground. "Fragger, I'm gonna have to get that replaced now!" He snarls, rising up as he transforms, his rifle kicking up into the air and spinning end over end before he catches it in his right hand. Broadside's commentary and approach don't go unnoticed, but it looks like Windshear is running interference well enough, though Astrotrain still takes the chance to retort, "I ain't got time for imitation triplechangers, Broadside! Why dontcha go curl up in a corner afraid of the next time yer feet are off the ground while the big mechs busy themselves with the important stuff!" With that, he levels his own rifle at Fairway, gripping it two handed as he leaps backwards, firing from the hip as he goes. "Autobots tryin to fly...sheesh!" In a chorus of shifting and spinning parts, Astrotrain's body spins and lifts up into his large robot mode. Combat: Astrotrain misses Fairway with his Ionic Displacer Rifle attack! -2 A bright spot appears over the sky; it is something in the middle of a planetfall; and as the flames subside; it is no other than Sixshot; his sleek starfighter mode flashed with it's wing signals before making a pass over Broadside; the hypersonic concussion blasters charge up and unleash two radiant beams towards Broadside! Combat: Sixshot strikes F/A-18 Hornet with his Hypersonic Concussion Blaster attack! -4 The fiery licks from Firestar's attack certainly do make a fine target for the human. The Lancer growls to herself as it opens its meatflaps and starts boasting! As Firestar scampers off to tango with Shockwave, Fusillade ignites her thrust-vectoring afterburners. She wildly flies across Windshear's and Broadside's flight paths with a crack of the sound barrier rupturing, and with a wide wind-up turn, lines up to ruin Vince's day. With a ratchet of opening doors and spinning rotary carriage, she dumps a missile, which eagerly sizzles toward the exo-suit's exhaust. Combat: Fusillade sets her defense level to Fearless. Fusillade leans forward, wingblades whipping out to their full span, even as her arms lock backward in place as the rear fuselage. Her torso folds out to the become the cockpit of a space capable B-1R Lancer, ready for flight! Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer misses Exo-Jet Headhunter Jet with her POW! Right in the Kisser! attack! Shockwave takes advantage of Astrotrain's interception of Fairway to move further into the facility. One large square concrete building among many has his attention. He straightens his fingers and, with monstrous strength, punches his hand into the wall just below the roof, turning to drag his hand along the length of the wall like a knife. When he withdraws it in a small cloud of cement dust there is a long gash along the wall. His left arm elevates and turns away to follow his gaze towards Firestar- he recognizes the sound of her plasma focussing coil very clearly. As a swirling blue plasma bolt explodes against one of the cooling towers behind him, Shockwave triangulates the path of the shot and returns fire, a shimmering x-ray laser beam raking towards the fast-moving target. Combat: Shockwave sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Shockwave strikes Firestar with his Firing Calculations Complete attack! -2 Windshear takes the shot from Broadside straight on the tip of his nosecone, well what of it that Tetrajets have. "That was not nice." he mutters and prepares to return fire when theres a blur and jetwash straight infront of him from Fusillade. Forget shooting at the Autobot for now, all the Seeker is doing at this point is trying to recover from the flat spin he ws put in and regain engine power. The Global Pose Tracker marks that Windshear has 'skipped' his action for this round. F/A-18 Hornet simply cannot ignore Astrotrain's snarky response. NO HE DIH'ENT. "Oho! Hooo! Alright bud! I was gonna' let you tango with th' cap'n but he can wait - !" Before he can say anything else, Sixshot comes tearing in from nowhere, striking the Hornet with enough concentrated soundwaves to jostle screws loose. "Gaaahhh! Nrghhh!" Steamed up like a teakettle, his frame explodes with dancing sparks that branch out and aim to encompass whoever may be near as he swoops down. Combat: Broadside sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: F/A-18 Hornet strikes Astrotrain with his Electric Field Area attack! Combat: F/A-18 Hornet strikes Sixshot with his Electric Field Area attack! Combat: F/A-18 Hornet strikes Windshear with his Electric Field Area attack! Somewhere, Shrapnel crosses his arms and nods his head slowly in approval, looking cool behind his reflective visor. Even as Astrotrain transforms, Fairway is activating his jumpjets and boosting away. Doing so, he manages to avoid the blast from the Decepticon triple-changer's ionic displacer rifle. He looks up at Astrotrain and beats back a surge of panic that threatens to leave him paralyzed. Broadside's attack helps in this immensely, giving Fairway a bit of time to regroup. He gives a call over the radio and then snaps off a shot in the general direction of Astrotrain's faceplate. Combat: Fairway strikes Astrotrain with his Scram Rifle attack! -2 The Headhunter can't quite keep up with that move, but Vince isn't exactly an untrained pilot. The warning tone of missile lock brings a smile from him as he pulls up sharply and rolls, dropping a flare to decoy the incoming ordnance. "Nice try, but not enough!" Levelling out and taking a second to get another look at the scene, he angles the Headhunter into a dive and opens up with the machine guns again. *Brrraaaaap!* The lovely sound of bullets leaping from a gun at a high rate of fire, and incredible velocities are like music to some. Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter Jet strikes Space-Going B-1R Lancer with its Heavy Machine Gun attack! Just like old times. Firing potshots at Shockwave, and getting cooked from the inside out for her troubles. The red-plated femme collapses, oily black smoke drifting out from between the joints in her armor as her internals continue to cook themselves after the fierce microwaving from Shockwave's cannon. Pity she doesn't have Moonracer here lurking in the wings to snea-attack that big purple bastard. Knowing Shockwave, though, he's gone right back to work right where he was standing a moment ago, and as she pulles herself to her feet, she tries to flank him, making a run for his other side, firing at him as she runs, and leaping for cover once her shot is loosened. Combat: Firestar sets her defense level to Guarded. Combat: Firestar strikes Shockwave with her strafing run attack! Porsche 959 is too far from the scene to really open fire yet, but his hearing will get there before he does. Shockwave's characteristic reactor drone is never a welcome sound. He strains to pick out the other sounds, but as he sorts, he sends a brief burst of data to... Firestar! 'take out 360 degree hip swivel and limit Shockwave's mobility'. Outside, Combat: Nightbeat analyzes Shockwave for weaknesses Firestar can exploit. Astrotrain is struck by the electric arc from Broadside's direction, sending him stumbling back against the side of the power plant's main entrance, crushing in the building materials a bit under his weight. "Urngh..." A moment later, he pulls away, fist-shaking in Broadside's direction as a bit of smoke curls upwards from his shoulders, "Play in yer own fraggin sandbox you glitch-faced tugboat! When I wanna play with you I'll let ya know when I'm good and ready!" Of course he should REALLY pay attention, because a moment later, Fairway's shot hits his shoulder, spinning him a bit but...not much else, as he straightens up again, glaring at the Autobot with a look that could melt a sharkticon to slag with a single glance. Or maybe give him indigestion at the least. "...alright ya little fragger. Congratulations." He puts his rifle back, maglocking it to his shoulder again as he reaches over and grabs onto the side of the building. There is a crumbling, tearing sound, then a horrendous *SHRUUUNK* as he pulls out a sizable chunk of mortar, steel girders and crumbled building material, a large chunk of framework from the side of the power plant that he's holding in both hands in a display of startling strength. "...ya officially got my full attention!" With that, he hefts the chunk overhead, then hurls it forward in a display of pure brute force! Combat: Astrotrain sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Astrotrain misses Fairway with his Donkey-Kong Throw attack! Shockwave has indeed gone right back to work. He only has one hand, but that hand has the strength of ten normal Transformers. With the screech of rebar and a chorus of cracks and grinding sounds from the concrete splitting, Shockwave reaches into the slot he tore in the reactor building's roof and peels a large chunk of the roof off. Ever mindful of efficiency, he spreads his stance wide for leverage and swivels at the waist to sling the twenty-ton slab of three foot thick reinforced concrete towards Firestar like an oversized frisbee, while plasma bolts splash against his armored superstructure. Combat: Shockwave sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Shockwave strikes Firestar with his Deep Impact attack! -4 *Chinkt!* *Chunkt!* *Fweep-oo!* The rounds chew through Fusillade's armor as she swings through a pass, and it's with great annoyance that she is having to spend so much attention on the pest. "Enough? ENOUGH?" She breaks into soft laughter. "I've got plenty!" That laugh crescendos, and the hundred and fifty foot long bomber sits on her tail. Soaring upward to the blackness of space, she tumbles on her yaw axis, and dumps out a spread of bombs that will hopefully saturate the area enough that one of the munitions will strike the jet. Several long, white spindles of JDAMs whistle down. Outside, Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Exo-Jet Headhunter Jet with her JDAM attack! A cow runs away from the explosions in slow motion, mooing. Sixshot is promptly electrocuted and the starfighter spins out of control, he growls, "Gnnnnnh. Good shot, I'll give you that." He says as his sleek starfighter form lands on the ground in mid transformation; wings folding back and arms as well; The starfighter soon changing to his Tank mode. Sixshot than powers up the weapons platform and unleashes two bright lances of hypersonic deliciousness, "But I can keep this up forver, 'bot." Sixshot transforms into the Ramming Tank mode. Combat: Ramming Tank strikes F/A-18 Hornet with his Hypersonic Concussion Blaster attack! -3 Windshear gets hit with something as hes pulling out of his spin. Warnings as usual flash across his HUD and as usual the Seeker ignores them. He continues to pull out and up and isnt that interested in shooting at anything still. The Global Pose Tracker marks that Windshear has 'skipped' his action for this round. Certainly unable to follow /that/ move, Vince has no idea what's coming....Until it hits. There's just no possible way he could have evaded an attack like that, and as the explosion tears through the exo-suit's armor, the concussive force tears straight through and jars Vince himself /hard/. His head, though protected by a helmet, slams against the controls as the Headhunter spins wildly, suddenly out of control and plummeting towards the ground. "Gah!" Vince himself, now dealing with a bit of a headache, has some problems focusing his vision for a moment, but realizes that he is plummeting towards the ground at an extreme rate, and if he doesn't get it together /fast/, he's a dead man. Shaking his head to clear it a bit from the impact on the console, his hands move quickly to transform, which stops the out of control spinning and levels him off as the VTOL turbines kick in and keep him airborn. But he's still in rough shape, himself, with probably a concussion from that bombing he just recieved. So instead of looking for that Lancer, as he probably should have been, he was trying to clear his head enough to re-focus. Exo-Jet Headhunter Jet transforms into its Exo-Jet Headhunter Robot mode. Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter takes extra time to steady itself. Pass F/A-18 Hornet doesn't seem to care about anyone else other than Astrotrain now, even when Sixshot lights up his fuselage with another blaster of hypersonic waves. Damn Sixshot! He thinks he's so cool! Six modes and everything! BAHHH! Three modes are where it is AT! But Broadside ignores him for now, launching a missile at Astrotrain right after his Donkey Kong miss. "I think you're good n' ready NOW! I'ma' glitch-slap ya' back to th' eighteen hundreds!" Combat: F/A-18 Hornet misses Astrotrain with his Missile attack! Fairway is nearly transfixed by that baleful stare of Astrotrain's! He only just manages to get out of the way of the chunk of masonry sent hurtling toward him. Astrotrain's might terrifies him. If he were to get a hold of the human, Vince... He ducks away upon receiving Firestar's status report, heading toward the pile of rubble beneath which she's been buried. He works to dig her out, scrabbling through the stone and rebar to get at his fallen comrade. Reaching her at last, he is aspirating heavily and covered in concrete dust. "I shall help you, Firestar," he says, "and then I suggest we make a concerted effort to get Shockwave away from the isotope." Combat: Fairway quickly patches up some of Firestar's minor injuries. Porsche 959 rises up into his robot mode, a photon pistol in either hand. His face is stony as Firestar gets a building dropped on her for her efforts. Nightbeat narrates, "I knew it could get bad. Real bad. Especially if this place went up in smoke. But sometimes, you need a lil' gunsmoke to prevent more smoke." He aims one pistol at Shockwave; the other at Sixshot. He fires, and he hopes. The puzzle pieces of Porsche 959 rearrange into the hard-boiled Autobot detective, Nightbeat! Combat: Nightbeat strikes Shockwave with his Twin Photon Pistols Area attack! Combat: Nightbeat strikes Ramming Tank with his Twin Photon Pistols Area attack! The huge slab of concrete and rebar sailed through the air, but it's majestic flight was cut short as it came crashing down on Firestar's head. Dust fills the air as the wall is reduced to rubble, but the Autobot underneath isn't down for the count. Seconds after being buried alive, she can be heard chopping herself free from the broken concrete and twisted steel with her trusty fireaxe. She smiles weakly as Fairway helps her get loose and fixes her broken parts for good measure. "Thanks for the quick assist, kid." She says with a wink. "Let's give ol' one-eye what he deserves!" She hoists herself up, and, still gripping her glowing energy axe, she runs into the breach, heading for Shockwave's personal space with grim intent. She swings low, aiming to sink that axe deep into Shockwave's hip. Combat: Firestar sets her defense level to Fearless. Combat: Firestar strikes Shockwave with her Fireman's Axe attack! Sixshot emits a soft laugh; it was mocking. "You bots make mistakes; Time to pay for them." The tank transforms again, and somehow pushes himself towards Astrotrain; he shifts in mid-air as to fly into Astrotrain's hand. "Let us finish this bot off, Astrotrain! Fire now!" He says. Sixshot transforms into the High Tech Pistol mode. Combat: Sixshot sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Sixshot takes extra time to steady himself. Pass "H-wha? Sixshot?!" The Lancer pulls up hard, not even taking time to gloat over the blow dealt to the exo-suit. Closing her main weapon stores for the moment, she circles a few times to look, look, and look a few more times to verify that the teal, purple, black and grey ninja was there -- and clutched in Astrotrain's hand. However, her attention is brought back to the fight by the sight of the exo-suit transforming. "Abomination," she hisses to herself as the homunculus apes the Cybertornians' transformation ability. With a whine of charging capacitors, she strafes his liftfans as she soars past. Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Exo-Jet Headhunter with her Toe-Popping Cherrybomblets (Laser) attack! Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer's attack has damaged your Agility! Windshear realizes once hes leveled off that there is no reason for him to be here so he banks off and goes sight seeing.... "Windshear, Fusillade: destroy these Autobots," commands Shockwave when Firestar hews mightily at him, taking a deep chunk out of his leg and causing him to stagger back against the wall of the reactor building. Nightbeat shooting him doesn't help matters, either. Shockwave is losing hydraulic fluid freely and the strength in that leg is going. He climbs into the reactor building, which is thankfully already empty of personnel, and rams his hand into a turbine to tear out a bundle of cabling which he splices quickly into his own power system. He seems to regain his strength quickly, rerouting energy to make up for the injury. Combat: Shockwave sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Shockwave quickly patches up some of his minor injuries. Astrotrain immediately launches to one side as Broadside's missile explodes against the ground where he was a moment ago, carving a huge crater in the pavement. "Fraggin hate you SO much..." he snarls, using his momentum to tuck and roll and come up on one knee in a clearcut display of his surprising agility in his blocky frame. Though there are plenty of times you wouldn't know it, Astrotrain is one of the most agile Decepticons in existence. If only his brain were as agile as his body to keep up at times. Nonetheless, a moment later, Sixshot is hurtling towards him in his alternate mode, and the triplechanger proceeds to snatch him up in mid air. Sixshot is a gun, but he's still a big gun, so Astrotrain is holding him in one arm the other moving around to grip the 'neck' of the gun to steady it. "Whaddaya know, you sixchangers got a use afterall!" he guffaws, before turning and pointing the weapon up at the floating form of Broadside. This is reminiscent of when he got a chance to use Megatron and completely and utterly blow Superion to pieces! So much so that Astrotrain grins, hefting the 'cannon' up as the light from the parking lot's lamps glints evilly along the tip of Sixshot's gun barrel. "A'right Broadside, ya wanna play? Open up and say AHH!" Hell hath no fury like massive firepower unleashed, as a one hundred foot radius around Astrotrain is bathed in white light as he pulls the trigger, sending up a hellishly huge blast of energy at the airborne Autobot triplechanger. Combat: Astrotrain sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Astrotrain strikes F/A-18 Hornet with Sixshot's Hypersonic Cannon attack! Just as his vision was starting to clear a bit, and he was getting back under control, that damned Lancer was back, and strafing his VTOL turbines with laser fire! Vince's training kicked in at that point, the turbines beginning to fail, causing some pretty nasty instability. He was about to start falling, tumbling head over heels towards the ground, but he kicks in the maneuvering thrusters and takes off after the bomber as it streaks past him. The controls, however, seemed damaged and a bit sluggish, and suddenly kicked a shower of sparks up into his face, which thankfully was protected by the helmet. Though a few managed to get up beneath the face plate. Ignoring that little bit of pain, though it had helped refocus his mind. Hefting the machine gun in the exo-suit's hand, Vince takes aim and pulls the trigger, the gun roaring to life and spitting out a stream of lead at the cause of his, and his exo's, pain, while muttering a prayer beneath his breath. Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter strikes Space-Going B-1R Lancer with its Medium Machine Gun attack! Fairway's right hand slides up into his wrist to be replaced, with a crackling snap, by a fiery-orange energo blade. This is his first mission a Captain and the first time he's ever been in command; he's only now realizing how high his hopes were. But he feels inadequate to combat this threat. He buries this fear and self-doubt in blinding anger, charging Shockwave with his light blue optics blazing. His energo blade sings toward that single optic. Combat: Fairway misses Shockwave with his Decapitator! (Punch) attack! F/A-18 Hornet turns in a wide arc to face Astrotrain, cursing about a wasted missile. "Fragger! Quit squirmin'!" And Astrotrain does seem to fall still for a moment, but not long enough for Broadside to train his guns. Not even long enough for Broadside to make out that Astrotrain is in fact, wielding the sixchanger. Before he can react, the searing beam lances out and hits his nose cone head-on. It splays out like the barrel of a backfired shotgun, and rips away most of his undercarriage and landing gear. "HRRRAUGHH!" Spiraling, he tries to bank back towards the river to transform, and lands with a tremendous *SPLASH* in carrier mode. Broadside unfolds, twists, and expands into his aircraft carrier mode. Combat: CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" takes extra time to steady himself. Pass The fiery femme watches as Shockwave marches inside the reactor building, clearly after the radioactive goodies within. She follows the trail of spilt fluids from Shockwave's wound, boldly going in alongside Fairway. "How's the leg, Shockwave? Looks like it's still in one piece. Let me FIX that for you!" She snaps, before striking at Shockwave with her axe, swinging low again as Fairway goes high. Combat: Firestar strikes Shockwave with her choppin' like a lumberjack attack! -2 Nightbeat's audios screech with static at the retort of the hypersonic cannon. He covers his audios as their ride back home takes a dive - but stays afloat. This is target rich environment, but he can't call himself pleased - dealing with Sixshot, Shockwave, she-devil Fusillade, and Astrotrain ain't no picnic. Firestar seems determined to murder Shockwave, so he switches his targets a bit - Astotrain and Sixshot now. Combat: Nightbeat strikes Astrotrain with his Twin Photon Pistols Area attack! -1 Combat: Nightbeat strikes Sixshot with his Twin Photon Pistols Area attack! -1 Spitting out a giant lance of energy at Broadside; it almost seemed as Sixshot coughed; but than it turned out he was just /laughing/. But laughter soon turned into surprise. "Oh look. He is still twitching." And than after a moment he said, "Go easy on my energon supply; I need some time to charge to full power again." Combat: Sixshot takes extra time to steady himself. Pass Long pauses, low weapon output, both were good signs that the exo-suit's systems were suffering. Fusillade smiles internally even as the direct hit chews on a bit more of her armor, a few glints of starlight visible in the sections of missing wing and tail segments. The air baffle to her main weapons store snaps down into place, and she lines up to finish off the exo-suit now that it was on the ropes. However, that plan changes by some unseen command, and death's hand is stayed this evening. The arrowhead silhouette of the bomber screeches away from Vince and his suit, and she immediately pounces on Firestar like well-trained Doberman. Transforming to robot mode, she tumbles out of the sky in a fierce shouldercheck against the other female, wingblades raised high and then speared at Firestar's clavicles. The sleek bomber rears up, wings collapsing onto hips even as the rear fuselage splits to form arms. The horizontal stabilizer slides up, the forward fuselage folds up accordian style, and Fusillade hops up on thrustered feet. Outside, Combat: Fusillade strikes Firestar with her Wingblades attack! -1 Shockwave whips the free end of the high-voltage cable at Fairway, deflecting his energo-blade with a coil of hissing, sparking cable wrapped around his arm. He blocks Firestar's axe with his left forearm, which keeps the blade away from his vitals even though it does carve a nasty gouge in his arm. "In spite of your vigor you have little chance of victory here, fe-male Autobot," Shockwave replies icily. "When I have disposed of your medic, I will be able to separate you into several roughly symmetrical portions without the inconvenience of your being repaired in the meantime." Shockwave releases the cable and lunges heavily towards Fairway, his fist open to attempt to palm Fairway's face in what Megatron would recognize as Shockwave's signature move. *"The Transformers," issue #6, Faithful Reader! Combat: Shockwave sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Fairway uses up a charge on his Train-Track Wings booster pack! Combat: Shockwave misses Fairway with his The Worse of Two Evils! attack! "Sheesh, no stayin power." Astrotrain grumbles, before he's tagged by Nightbeat's shots peppering against his frame. He'd love to go evasive, and maybe have some of his own agility work for him a bit...not that it ever does. Sixshot's gun barrel swivels around then, as he points not at Broadside's distant form anymore, but now towards Nightbeat's position. Standing there, holding the Sixchanger like some obscene underslung heavy assault weapon, Astrotrain is nonetheless having himself a grand old time! "Aw shucks, fine let's take it down a notch. Just to leave something for ya to play with afterwards." He adjusts a dial on Sixshot's hull, turning it to the 50% marking before taking hold of the trigger once more. "Alright bot, let's see ya DANCE DANCE DANCE!" Again he squeezes the trigger, again brilliant white light washes outwards, just not quite as blinding. And this time a rapid fire staccato of energy bolts tear forward from Sixshot's barrel as he sprays down Nightbeat's general vicinity with firepower that while less devastating than before, is still devastating in its own right, cackling like a madman the whole time. "BWAHAHAHAHA!" Combat: Astrotrain strikes Nightbeat with High Tech Pistol 's Hypersonic Cannon Spray and Pray! attack! -5 Firestar feels another satisfying impact with Shockwave's armor through the haft of her techno-axe, but there's no time to celebrate as she is roughly struck from behind. Her shoulder is perforated by a blade, and the red fire response 'bot tumbles to the floor. "So, finally saw the light and got a female of your own, Shockwave? took you long enough." She retorts scathingly, while rolling to face Fusillade personally. Bunching up her body, she then springs upwards, hoping to nail Fusillade with a double-kick while bringing herself back to her feet. Combat: Firestar strikes Fusillade with her flip-kick (Kick) attack! "Firestar," Fairway says, "continue pursuit of Shockwave, but advance carefully. Broadside is in need. I shall attempt to provide a suitable distraction from-Ahh!" He boosts out of the way of Shockwave's signature attack and makes haste for the exit, though he hates himself for leaving Firestar to fend for herself. He races across the battlefield to help Broadside, running faster than he ever has, and when he arrives he looks close to passing out. "I...got here as soon...as I could," he vents heavily, "Your turrets...we must thwart the enemy's advance into the facility." Combat: Fairway quickly patches up some of CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" 's minor injuries. Vince watches the Lancer turn and run, headed for a target on the ground, it looked like, at high speed. Well, he wasn't going to let the Decepticon go /that/ easily. "Hey, I'm not done with you yet!" Though his words sound just a bit slurred, from the head wound, he was keeping himself together fairly well. Streaking after Fusillade with all the speed he could muster out of his damaged exo, Vince switched front and rear at the last second, aiming his feet for the back of the Lancer-turned-robot's head. Yes, the Headhunter was indeed in a state of disarray, the damage from that bomb, and the laser-fire to the VTOL turbines had taken quite a toll, but it was far from being out of the fight. It was Vince himself that was having the most trouble, trying to keep the pain from his concussion from getting the best of him, and keeping his focus. It was a fight within a fight, for certain, and Vince wasn't at all sure he was winning, but he was trying like hell! Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter misses Fusillade with its Flying Boot-to-the-Head! (Smash) attack! Nightbeat is blown away, slammed into the side of a building. He buckles over forward, face planting in the dirt. Folded in two, it still doesn't disguise the sucking chest wound he's sporting. Nightbeat coughs up something black with a >GHK<. The photon pistols fall out of his hands, and he rolls over, staring up at the sky without any focus. Then he gets up. Because he can't take this sitting down. His trusty plasma pistol snaps to his fingers, and he shoots at Astrotrain, snarling, "Think you're hot slag 'cos you got a new toy?" Combat: Nightbeat strikes Astrotrain with his Plasma Blaster attack! CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" can only float there, trying to recover, hull littered with gaping laser wounds. Hoo! Quite a blast. Smoldering, he waits for a patchjob, the arduous task of repairing a carrier left to poor, winded Fairway. The captain gets him in working order relatively quickly, however, and Broadside rumbles his appreciation. "Yeah, by all means sir, use 'em!" Combat: CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" takes extra time to steady himself. Pass "She is not mine," replies Shockwave, although he does take a moment to grab Fusillade by the back of the neck as he steps around her and Firestar, using Fusillade as cover while he moves towards the reactor proper. Lifting her by the scruff for a moment he lases shut several gaping wounds in her back before setting her back down. "Proceed," Shockwave instructs Fusillade, turning to crack open the reactor housing with a straight kick. Pale blue light spills forth from the breach and a strident whooping alarm goes off throughout the facility, orange strobes flaring on. Combat: Shockwave sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Shockwave quickly patches up some of Fusillade's minor injuries. That heel from Firestar snaps up and smacks Fusillade squarely in the head. She snarls and digs heel thrusters unkindly in Firestar's shoulderblades before launching up into a hovering position. Shaking her head to clear the dizzying ring, Fusillade scowls, recovering in time to heed Vendetta's earlier parrying advice. With a supple twist of her vertebral column, she angles her wingblades to deflect the incoming foot thrusters of the exo-suit, meeting, matching, and adding to the momentum to throw the piloted suit off balance. "Femme? FEMME?!" Fusillade bellows out fiercely, clawing at the air while Shockwave manhandles her for repairs. "I am a -WARPLANE--!!" she protests in a full blown tantrum, promptly demonstrating this on the unfortunate pair. Fusillade leans forward, wingblades whipping out to their full span, even as her arms lock backward in place as the rear fuselage. Her torso folds out to the become the cockpit of a space capable B-1R Lancer, ready for flight! Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Firestar with her Bombs Area attack! Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Exo-Jet Headhunter with her Bombs Area attack! Outside, Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer's attack has damaged your Velocity! Astrotrain is struck in the side as the laser blast makes contact, seeping into his armor and doing a bit of damage to...something inside, eliciting a grunt from the triplechanger as he stumbles briefly before catching himself. "...you think I need a big gun to deal with scrap like you? This is just a fun distraction!" And with that, he throws Sixshot up into the air, spinning the weapon end over end as the triplechanger transforms again. Slamming down on his eight huge, steel wheels, Sixshot's form comes down and ironically lands just perfectly inside of one of Astrotrain's gun turrets, even as he abruptly explodes forward in acceleration, crunching over several other cars as he veers left, then right, as if waiting to see which direction the AUtobot is going to go. With Nightbeat's reflection glinting off of Astrotrain's front armored frame, the question becomes...will the Autobot, be caught out in the open and facing down a hurtling locomotive of doom zig or zag and will he choose correctly? Armor locks in place, parts shift and Astrotrain transforms into a huge Battletrain! Combat: Decepticon Battletrain strikes Nightbeat with his Train Crossing attack! Combat: That attack has temporarily impaired Nightbeat's Agility. (Crippled) Sixshot was again.. taken advantage of. Now he has a big kid-brainpower level 'con going all trigger happy on him, he yells, "Ow, ouch! Hey, stop squeezing my trigger like that; hey STOP TOUCHING MEEEE!" And than after some communication; obviously internal, he gave up; "Fine, just watch it; I don't want needless repairs. Who do we scorch now?" He asks; somewhere deep down, already... being able to 'tolerate' Astrotrain. Of course, in acceptable margins. And than he started to regret it as he is thrown into the air, his sensors and gyroscope fights to pinpoint the ground as he lands neatly in one of Astrotrain's turrets. "Pretty useful" He says. And than the monster turret enhanced with Sixshot turns towards Nightbeat... "Well than. Like he said. DANCE" And the pistol fired two bolts in Nightbeat's direction. Combat: High Tech Pistol misses Nightbeat with his Hypersonic Cannon attack! -5 Aww, hell! Missing, but glad he'd gone in feet first, Vince's head is still a bit fuzzy, and the controls of the Headhunter are sluggish. That's not a good sign. The thrusters around the exo's legs, however, keep him from slamming into the ground hard enough to damage anything, but now he's facing the wrong direction! Spinning around so he's facing the Decepticons again, he spies Shockwave kicking open the reactor housing and shouts "NOO!", raising the exo's machine gun and letting loose with another burst of fire just an instant before Fusillade's temper-tantrum bombing, which shreds his exo's armor, forcing several shards through the cockpit, and slamming into Vince's mostly unprotected body. "Grk!" And the warning klaxons inside the armor can clearly be heard through the external speakers. Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter strikes Shockwave with its Medium Machine Gun attack! Nightbeat is murdered some more by Astrotrain. He's pretty much run into the ground, so he's in no position to stick out enough to be shot by Sixshot. "Gnn," is all he says. Nightbeat listens, and he transmits some data. 'creaky floorboard at Shockwave's 6 o clock' Squeak squeak squeak. Combat: Nightbeat analyzes Shockwave for weaknesses Firestar can exploit. The explosion blasts Firestar clear off her feet, the Autobot crashing into the opposing wall before she crumples to the floor in a smoldering heap, surrounded by fragments of her broken armor plating. This has not been a good day for Firestar, but she's lived through worse. She coughs weakly, a puff of smoke escaping her mouth as she continues to suffer internal breakdowns after the massive explosion. Too weak to move, she can't get Shockwave in her sights to light him up with her plasma generators; Luckily, the super-sensing Nightbeat can be her eyes FOR HER! With the targetting data inputted, she slowly but surely raises her right hand in Shockwave's direction, smiling faintly. "Sending a hot-headed hussy to do your dirty work, Shockwave? Not like you at all." She chides, before blindly lighting a pin-point fire somewhere in the vicinity of Shockwave's face. Combat: Firestar strikes Shockwave with her Pinpoint Plasma attack! Fairway finishes his patch job on the big triple-changer and then activates his jumpjets to boost a board and mount one of the turrets on Broadside's deck. Targetting computers beep happily to life, their screens glowing sky blue to show Fairway the battlefield in vivid detail. His fellows are in range of this attack;he heistates for a long moment...friendly fire is unacceptable. But he is desparate. He blanks his optics, grits dentals hard, and pulls the trigger. Combat: Fairway misses Space-Going B-1R Lancer with CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" 's Phalanx Turrets Area attack! Combat: Fairway misses Shockwave with CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" 's Phalanx Turrets Area attack! Combat: Fairway strikes Decepticon Battletrain with CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" 's Phalanx Turrets Area attack! Combat: Fairway strikes Exo-Jet Headhunter with CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" 's Phalanx Turrets Area attack! Combat: Fairway's attack has damaged your Firepower! Combat: Fairway strikes Firestar with CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" 's Phalanx Turrets Area attack! Huge turret barrels recoil as they fire off rounds, under Fairway's aim. Broadside swivels any unused turrets towards the Decepticons within range, firing off a barrage of lead with a warcry. "YAAARRGHH! EAT IT!" he yells. Combat: CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" strikes High Tech Pistol with his Phalanx Turrets Area attack! Combat: CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" misses Shockwave with his Phalanx Turrets Area attack! Decepticon Battletrain grunts, feeling the Autobot ground down beneath him, every bit of satisfaction as if he were a warpig dancing on the remains of a fallen foe. That is, until phalax shots start to pepper his armored hull. Under normal circumstances, he would shrug those off easily, but he's got a few sizable gaps in his armor and a few shots get through to cause some pain. Damage reports on his internal sensors are starting to add up, and though by the standards of many, he still has alot of 'oomph' to go, Astrotrain knows that it's high time he tried to get himself back a bit. Shockwave said he was to try and remain operational afterall, right? "Yeah be quick about it..." the triplechanger mutters to Sixshot, apparently assuming that Nightbeat is dead underneath him, as he picks up speed and starts to rumble away. A moment later, he transforms, rising off the ground as his wings spread out and putting out a burst of rocketfire to accelerate to a dizzying point. Even as he promptly flies -over- Broadside, tracers from the phalax guns chasing after the ridiculously fast shuttlecraft, disgorging Sixshot from a belly-hatch a moment later, dropping the sixchanger towards Broadside and Fairway like some obscene paratrooper dropping on his target. With that done, Astrotrain banks hard and hurtles back towards the nuclear plant. The time for subtlety is over, and he proceeds to set down with his landing gear sending up a huge shower of sparks, his large shuttle frame bleeding off speed impossibly fast as it rumbles up near one of the sizable gaping holes torn in the building's frame, at which point he transforms yet again into his robot mode and abruptly steps through, slumping a bit as he hefts his rifle up. "Oi Shockwave, I could use a little uh...pick-me-up." Totally ignorant of the fact that Shockwave is in the midst of a dancing duel with an Autobot femme of course. In a chorus of shifting and spinning parts, Astrotrain's body spins and lifts up into his large robot mode. Combat: Astrotrain sets his defense level to Protected. Combat: Astrotrain takes extra time to steady himself. Pass A stream of tracers ricochets off of Shockwave's back, distracting him and causing his head to swivel around and fix its single eye on the source, the lone exo-suit. He passes judgement on it and moves on, apparently considering it not that much of a threat by comparison to Firestar, who blasts him in the head with devastating force, taking off one of his ears and about a third of his head (or more properly his "primary sensor cluster"), severely impairing his targeting systems. As Shockwave stumbles forward under the force of the blow, his hand splits the breach in the reactor housing, revealing a mass of complex, glowing machinery humming away inside. By feel alone Shockwave reaches into this mass and twists something, tearing out a piece. A spray of incandescent fluid -- super-pressurized molten thorium salt -- hisses out of the damaged reactor and coats the wall of the reactor room, dissolving lesser machinery into a glowing sludge as the intensely radioactive, blue-hot reactor fuel pools on the floor and starts to eat into the concrete. A little unsteady on his feet, Shockwave turns around and regards Firestar with his flickering eye while explosions from the gatling gun's 25mm explosive-tipped shells burst all around. "You do not know me as well as you think, fe-male Autobot. I am happy to use whatever resources are at my disposal to achieve my mission objectives." He raises his voice. "Astrotrain, collect the thorium as soon as it has cooled sufficiently to be loaded. I must withdraw." He ignites his tritium plasma rockets and blasts off, soaring up into the sky through the shredded roof of the reactor building on a pillar of white smoke. Combat: Shockwave begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Space-Going B-1R Lancer "This shouldn't prove to be a challenge." Said Sixshot as he was dropped towards Broadside; his legs kick out and the handle turns into wings, neatly folded on his back as he transforms into his wolf form; somewhere along the line of falling he got shot a few times, opening up his armor, he writhed in pain and anger, "Ughh, I will get you for that." It wasn't getting hot yet for him, though, not yet; but soon will. Paws neatly struck the ground, the four-clawed paws digging into the surface of the carrier as he dashes off towards a corner, seeking shelter from the turrets as his scanners seek vulnerable spots; he knew that shot earlier opened something up, he just had to find it; and than-- he will unleash pain on Broadside and sink him.. hopefully. Combat: Sixshot sets his defense level to Guarded. Sixshot transforms into the Wolf mode. Combat: Sixshot takes extra time to steady himself. Pass There's a disappointed flick of canards from Fusillade as she cruises over the battle, as neither of the pair that got pummeled by the bombs break off from Shockwave to pursue her. Admirable focus on their mission. The air lights up with Broadside's volley, and the bomber swerves and jerks with uncanny nimbleness in the air. Her wingflaps quiver in panic as Shockwave withdraws without ANY of the material, OR any Autobots either. She unloads another set of bombs on Vince and Firestar in a desperate attempt to compensate for what she perceives as a failed mission. "You gotta smart mouth on you. But that ain't gonna save your skinny skidplate if you ain't got the chops to back it up. I learned that MYSELF the hard way. Be sure to take your pet with you to THE PIT!!!!" Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Exo-Jet Headhunter with her Bombs Area attack! Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer's attack has damaged your Velocity! Combat: Exo-Jet Headhunter is completely disabled. Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer strikes Firestar with her Bombs Area attack! Combat: Firestar falls to the ground, unconscious. Space-Going B-1R Lancer says, "Aw slag the boss is gonna be pissed!" CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" feels the light 'thunk' of Sixshot's landing. "Hey! HEY! This ain't no free ride, get yer' damn dirty paws offa' me! Heads up, cap'n!" he alerts Fairway as he turns his barrels towards Sixshot, firing upon his own deck in an attempt to catch 'con armor. Combat: CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" strikes Wolf with his Phalanx Turrets attack! -1 Luckily, Fairway doesn't see Firestar fall - he is spared some guilt. He immediately regrets having pulled the trigger with his Autobots still on the field. He sees Sixshot drop onto the Broadside's deck, and he hears the triple-changer's warning; hetakes this opportunity to dismount. He wipes his hands on his thighs as if the turret may have left guilt on his hands in physical form. Aided by data from his combat visor, he unsubs his rifle and charges at Sixshot as he tries to hide. Combat: Fairway strikes Wolf with his Scram Rifle attack! -2 Cut into by friendly fire, luckily it was as he was turning to get the hell outta Dodge, so the turret fire from Broadside's deck guns only punches through the side of the exo, instead of right through the cockpit. Vince can barely keep himself conscious, as the shrapnel wounds leak precious blood all over the cockpit, all over the controls. The concussion is starting to severely take it's toll, as well, as he forces the exo to take a step, then another, slowly, until he's clear of the immediate combat zone, and the exposed reactor. But he doesn't make it but a pair of steps, as another round of bombs rips through his exo, and him, as well. Collapsing across the controls, the multitude of injuries piling up causing Vince to lose consciousness, more from pain than from anything else, he doesn't even notice the extra shrapnel punching into his frail body through the heavily armored exo-suit, as it collapses to the ground, shutting down completely as several fires suddenly erupt from various sources along the shattered and broken Headhunter. In somewhat of a reversal of thier age-old roles, it is Shockwave launching a daring midnight raid for precious, nessasary materials, and evne though those days are over, that kind of thing tends to stick with you. Firestar's last blast of face-melting fire was certainly effective in satisfying her long pent-up frustrations versus the one-handed tyrant, and seeing Shockwave flee from the edge of her cracked optics is enough to put a smile on her face. As the battered and broken Firestar watches Shockwave fly away, she is forced back into the present; Leaking nuclear powerplant, bombs going off, Autobot kidnappings... Shockwave is the least of her worries. One leg broken and one arm missing, Firestar hauls herself to her feet, glaring though the ruined cieling at the bomber high above. "I got enough to get by." She replies, unsure if the Decepticon can hear her, and not really caring. As the bombs drop, Firestar yanks the emergency shut-down lever for the critically-damaged reactor, sparing the remains of the power plant from catastophy... While she herself is engulfed in the roaring explosion. The Global Pose Tracker marks that Exo-Jet Headhunter has 'skipped' its action for this round. Sparking and grinding with an unhealthy sound, the orange strobes turn red and a mass of graphite rods descends from a structure above the reactor core to damp the reaction, while the pressure slacks off and the spray of molten thorium salt drops to a dribble. Unfortunately there may already be enough outside of the reactor to cause something unpleasant to happen. The thorium that's already been spilled doesn't seem to be cooling down. In fact, Firestar's sensitive thermometers (if she was awake) would determine that it's getting hotter as the mass of spilled fuel reacts with itself unrestrained by the reactors' cooling systems. It's already melted through the floor and is silently burning into the bedrock under the reactor building. Weirdly colored fire licks off of its surface and crackles across the walls. Nightbeat is doing a very good impression of a stain ground into the concrete, where Astrotrain ran him over. Firestar down, the EDC fellow down... slag slag slaggity slag. Someone's going to need to do extraction, and Fairway was all the way on Broadside last his listened that way... no two things for it. With a shaking, shattered hand, he pops a panel and chugs a can of Pennzoil, getting to his feet and looking toward the blaze. Outside, Combat: Nightbeat quickly patches up some of his minor injuries. Outside, Astrotrain shields his face as bits of the building come down around him after Fusillade's bombing run, grunting for a moment. "FRAGGING FUSILLADE!" He fistshakes up at her through a hole in the ceiling. "Be careful where ya..." Finally, there is no movement once the concrete and metal infrastructure settle in ruin from Fusillade's fiercely vindictive salvo. The bomber banks, examining the spreading pool of the molten thorium. She is glad it was Astrotrain was the one that had to pick that up. Although waiting for it to cool? Ugh that would take forever and Autobot and EDC reinforcements were certainly on their way. <> Fusillade radios at Astrotrain as she tracks over to Broadside and Astrotrain's position to check up on their progress with Broadside. Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer takes extra time to steady herself. Pass And then Shockwave proceeds to fly off, leaving a slack-jawed Triplechanger staring after him. "...fragger could have at least gave me a patchjob! Razzin frazzin ungrateful..." he stomps his feet a bit, and enters further into the room, looking at the slowly spreading pool of liquid on the floor. "Oh yeah, how am I supposed to gather this stuff up, right?" He leans down, reaching out with one hand and trying to take a handful of the stuff. A rather loud *HISSSSSSS* issues out a moment later. "AUGH! IT BURNS, IT BURNS!" Astrotrain waves his hand wildly as steam pours off! He runs left! He runs right! "HOT HOT HOT!" He finds a convenient source of water destined for the reactor water nearby sitting in an open-topped bin (open now after all the shooting going on at least) and proceeds to plunge his hand into it, enveloped in a thick cloud of steam filling the immediate area! After a few seconds, he takes his hand out again, which has had all its outer shell stripped off, and showing all of its interior workings as he flexes and unflexes the fingers, looking very much like a prop out of a Terminator movie. It's only a testament to his tough cybertronium design that even the 'skeleton' beneath is left after a few seconds of submersion. Leave it to Astrotrain to make the most of a situation though. "...hey, lookit this. I got a Craw! Reowr!" He makes a few clawing motions at Firestar's prone and unconscious form nearby. "FEAR THE CRAW! Bwahahaha okay seriously this is all Fubar. The heck with this." From the low mountains to the northeast of Surat, where Shockwave has retreated to await the outcome of the battle, he transmits a message back to his troops. <> The wolf jumped sideways; but too late, it got peppered by more shots; which opened more holes and sent sparks flying in all directions. It howled loudly as it disappeared somewhere, in one of Broadside's holes. Instincts were screaming and working overtime. It assesed the combat situation. Enhanced senses made the myriad of colors seem sharper; sounds deeper; he could hear his prey but not see, Broadside wasn't the target right now. Fairway was. Slowly he stalked underneath the external hull before finally jumping out again; he was hoping to catch Fairway unaware. And than he would attempt to leap at her, attempt to bring it's fangs down on Fairway's neck and upper shoulder, while trying to rend away as much armor as he can with his claws. Beware the predator. Combat: Sixshot sets his defense level to Aggressive. Combat: Wolf strikes Fairway with his I take you to the fairy land (Punch) attack! CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" reeeeally isn't too keen on Fusillade circling over him like a vulture. To this, he starts up his massive propellers and chugs further down the river, regardless of wounded extraction! All of this rocking wasn't playing well with his gyros. And supposedly there are med-evac troops on the way. "Hrrghh..." With Fairway handling Sixshot (or vice versa), Broadside swivels his turrets up to fire upon Fusillade! "Geddown here 'n FIGHT ya' fat buzzard!" Combat: CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" misses Space-Going B-1R Lancer with his Laser attack! Inside the burning wreckage of the Headhunter, Vince was slowly coming back around, though he wasn't at all certain where he was, or what was going on. But his eyes, though blurred and barely open, /were/ open, and he was moving a bit. Wincing in pain, he notes his radio is still transmitting, and he decides to try to use it, as he attempts to extricate himself from the wreckage of the exo. His voice slurred, and barely audible, and obviously in pain, "Need extraction." Those two words are all he managed to get out, before the pain took over again, as he started to pull his badly battered body from the severely mangled and burning exo-suit. He was completely unaware, at this point, that the reactor core was most certainly leaking enough radiation to kill him, if he didn't get clear pretty quick. Vince was only out for a couple seconds this time, before he once again is conscious, and still very confused and muddled. Head trauma's can do that to a man, ya know. Pulling himself from the wrecked Headhunter, he pushes himself to his feet...Well, tries to, but falls back to his knees. He's bleeding badly from more than a dozen pieces of shrapnel embedded in his chest and arms, but he manages to crawl away from the flaming exo-suit. It might be repairable, but it would take a lot of work. The Global Pose Tracker marks that Vince Larsen has 'skipped' its action for this round. An EDC cargo copter makes its way into the skyline. Inside where the cargo is stored, a team of mechanics quickly finish up whatever adjustments were needed on the Glaive that stands idle. The Colonel is inside and calmly says, "It's not until you are faced with mortality that you are truly a God on the battlefield. Tonight, flesh and steel well tangle. Get the EVAC going and pull out Larsen's Talon. My dance card is going to be full." The armored suit then powers up all the way as the mechanics strap themselves in. Briar then punches a button as the hatch opens up and has the armored suit leap out of the vehicle. Additional equipment was attached to the Glaive so that the wearer can use the targeting systems better. "AL, switch the weapon systems to ANTI-AIRCRAFT," calmly says Nate to the AI inside the Glaive. <> Fairway is walloped good! And before he has the chance to launch into what was sure to be a stinging diatribe Sixshot's blow catches him right in the jaw; the susbsequent twist of his head causes his cranial unit to separate from his backstrut; he is out cold before he even hits the deck. Combat: Fairway takes extra time to steady himself. Pass "M'NOT FAT! Just big B-1'D!!!!" Fusillade shrieks down at Broadside. With a cracking and squealing sound a large portion of one of the reactor subsystems, its base eaten away by the molten thorium, slumps into the hissing pool, sending up a belch of brilliant green and orange fire as impurities burn off and the machinery is added to the corium mass. The fire, shifting continually through strange toxic colors, is steadily climbing into the sky as the corium consumes more and more material inside the breached reactor core. Firestar's battered and broken remains are still within the reactor chamber, dangerously close to the melting radioactive mess. Good thing she's fire-proof, that'll keep her alive for at least a little while longer. Nightbeat is feeling dead of the death, the hard-bitten detective has to admit to himself. Not so bad as some of the others on the field, but pretty bad. He grabs his arm off the floor and hobbles off to do some disaster relief and help with putting out fires. Deep down, Nightbeat wishes that Air Raid was here, even if it meant being hosed down with foam. He could use the fire suppression help! Combat: Nightbeat begins retreating, leaving himself vulnerable to parting shots from Wolf , Patchwork, CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" , Glaive II - Prototype , Shockwave, Space-Going B-1R Lancer, and Fairway Patchwork got the call, but it took a while to get here. She might not be the quality of cavelry people really want to get, but beggers can't be choosers. Not really sure what she's coming into, other than there are those who need to be gotten out, Patchwork attempts to make her entrance as low-key as possible. Astrotrain pauses, amidst the billowing steam and SUPERHEATING LIQUID nearby to listen to the radio and the chatter going back and forth. Apparently he's not too worried about being caught in something bad as the dangerous stuff is growing hotter and hotter nearby. That probably comes with the confidence that he can get into orbital altitude in a minute flat when push comes to shove. "Autobots eh...?" he muses, leaning down to Fairway's prone body and tugging on her arm a bit. But some of the rubble has come down on her, and she doesn't look in all that good of shape to begin with. "...meh. Too damaged and I ain't got time to dig this one out." With that, he turns his attention towards the downed exo suit. The fire behind him is getting worse and worse but, again...that confidence that he can get out of here in a moment's notice when he needs to. He picks the Exo Suit up roughly by one arm, then notices the human crawling nearby. "Ah ha!" And with that, he reaches out to seize Vince's wounded body up roughly in one hand, lifting him up as he queues in his radio. "Hey, are we collecting humans too or is it just Autobots?" He listens to the response, then snorts and looks back at Vince. "Heh, too bad fer you, bloodbag. This is yer unlucky day. Have fun gettin cripsified!" And with that, he proceeds to put vince back down, right next to his Exo suit, no less, before giving him a taunting wave as his anti gravs kick in and raise him up through a sizable hole in the roof. The last sight the human has of the Triplechanger (and what COULD have been his potential inadvertant savior) is of Astrotrain transforming into his shuttle form and soaring away from the site of the nuclear plant. Parts spin, components shift and Astrotrain's body grows in size until he is an enormous space shuttle. Combat: Decepticon Shuttle begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit. The wolf-like form of Sixshot grabbed Fairway and jumped into the water; just in time to see Astrotrain blasting off. 'Fraggin' slag.' He thought; there goes the Evac. He was sinking fairly quickly; but once he reaches the bottom; Sluggish as hell and dragging Fairway; he tries to run for the shore. <> He transmits. Combat: Sixshot sets his defense level to Fearless. Combat: Wolf takes extra time to steady himself. Pass The scene of the battle looks bad, very bad. The small rural town of Kaps just happened to be in the way... first in the way of where the regional capital of Surat wanted to build its shiny new Kakrapar Atomic Power Station, and then in the way of the Decepticons when they came to try to somehow extract the molten thorium salt fuel from that same plant. Kaps' citizens are cowering in their small wooden houses, peering out in amazement at the pillar of fire that glows red, white, orange, yellow, blue, green, purple and many other shades besides from the direction of the shattered power station, which is steadily collapsing into itself as it is consumed by its own fuel. Released by the Decepticons in desperate grasping or perhaps ruthless reprisal, the molten thorium is out of the reactor and is melting down, consuming itself and the reactor building and spewing out intensely poisonous gases along with the lurid, bizarre flames. After shouting defiantly at Broadside, Fusillade parks herself in a loitering position out of reach of the carrier's anti-aircraft guns. Astrotrain bugs out, and the sound of... even more exo-suits and Autobots greets her audials. Hrn. The Lancer inverts herself to align her canopy with those below, and catches sight of the pale winged wolf taking a plunge into the water. Sleeking wings back to their fully swept fifty-five degree angle, she plunges like a seabird after a fish to the waves below and to the right of Broadside's prow. At the last moment, she pulls up hard, summoning her clip-on rocket packs from subspace and using them in concert with her space maneuvering thrusters to hold her aloft over the water. She snaps open her empty foward bay, ejecting the glossy white rotary launcher into the drink to make space for Sixshot stuff the inert Fairway into her bomb bay. CVN-68 "USS Nimitz" suddenly realizes that Fairway has been, in fact, knocked right out. Well slag. Fusillade dives nearby, and Broadside chugs awaaaay, a sitting duck. He transforms, forgetting he's floating in the Tapti River, and flops backwards with another heavy splash. It takes him a moment to get upright again. Spotting Sixshot with Fairway in his jaws, and Fusillade stuffing him in her... bomb bay, Broadside growls and pulls for this plasma gun, then thinks better of it. Wouldn't want to explode him along with the rest of her bombs. "Frag!" In a swift series of snaps and clanks, Broadside transforms into his robot mode. Combat: Broadside takes extra time to steady himself. Pass Upon not being engaged and the Decepticons have started to retreat with Fairway it seems, the Glaive quickly looks for where Vincent may be. The Glaive is rather careful. Especially since Nate does not want to be dead! Vince Larsen is hurt bad, but he's still moving. Pushing his body to it's limits, and beyond, really, as he tries to crawl away from his burning exo. Faintly, his hearing affected by the concussion, he hears his exo get picked up, then dropped, a second before he himself is roughly picked up by Astrotrain. "GAAH!" His scream of pain echoes loudly over the roar of flames, the sounds of the battle still raging on not too far away, and the other sounds of the mangled reactor nearby, leaking. But he manages to hold on to his consciousness, though barely, through the pain as he is set back down, next to the Headhunter once more. Great, now he has to try to get clear of it /again/. But that's his subconscious mind there, as his conscious mind can't focus on anything at all. Not even the evac team sent by Nate, as they land and start working to get his exo-suit, and him, out from their position dangerously close to the leaking reactor. Confused and dazed from the concussion, and now in more serious danger, from the loss of blood of all those little pieces of shrapnel lodged in his upper body, the evac medics work fast to stabilize him, so they can safely get him clear. Luckily, the shrapnel didn't hit anything vital, but it's still causing a large amount of blood loss, and it'll take him a while to get over this injury. Luckily, though, he's still alive, and from the looks of things, he'll continue to be around to harass the Decepticons once he heals up, and gets cleared by medical staff to pilot an exo again. "Fairway!" Patchwork is just in time to see him being hauled off. It's not the first time she's seen something like that lately, and although she doesn't like it any more than she has before, the medic has other pressing matters at hand that she can actually do some good. Shifting, the femme moves swiftly for Firestar, seeing that Vince is already being taken care of; she works to stabalize Firestar before she can load him up. Sixshot looks at Broadside and smiles faintly; as much as a wolf can smile, mechanical at that. So that was his weakness? Fear for his comrades? It was funny; But Sixshot didn't bother yet with that, no. Even though it was not really Zero-G, trying to load someone in someone elses... bomber bay underwater; is tougher than it sounds, and so Sixshot spends his time struggling to load Fairway into Fusillade's.. bomber bay, ignoring Broadside for now. He shall be dealt with later. Combat: Wolf takes extra time to steady himself. Pass Space-Going B-1R Lancer bobs on the water.. "C'mon c'mon already stuff it in there!" she chides Sixshot impatiently. She warily eyes Broadside as he angrily stews at distance, and gloats a bit. "Yeah, that's right. Too bad Fairway here didn't have the same restraint when he was using YOU to fire on Firestar and that Exo-Suit, hahaha!" Once Sixshot is finished with her underside, the space-faring warplane ignites thrusters with a tremendous plume of superheated water and begins to lift off, sending a few fish flying in her wake. Combat: Space-Going B-1R Lancer begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit. Broadside winces at that stab of guilt, and can only glare after Fusillade as she retreats in a wake of cooked fish. <> Combat: Broadside takes extra time to steady himself. Pass From Glaive II - Prototype , Nate Briar handles some EDC radio talk and observes the medics getting Vince out to safety. Stabilized enough for transport, Vince has been sedated heavily, and the medics are loading him up for evac to whatever medical facility they're ordered to take him to. The beaten, broken, twisted, burning Headhunter has been extinguished, and is also being loaded for transport back to base. The wolf than looks towards Broadside, with no way of communication under water; he transmits. <> And than the wolf transforms into his pistol mode again. It settles in into the mud at the bottom of the river; the water bubbles around the 6 weapon configuration... and than a lance of brilliant light fires out; the water bubbling and exploding outwards turning into mist even under water. The water itself parts as the beam shoots out of the surface and towards the sky; Sadly, Broadside was the target and he may have been caught in it if he didn't move. Sixshot had no way to confirm in the moment of mist. Sixshot transforms into the High Tech Pistol mode. Combat: High Tech Pistol strikes Broadside with his Hypersonic Cannon attack! -1 Broadside couldn't have possibly dodged such a sneaky shot. In nails him good, melts his armor right quick, and screws up some pretty important internal stuff. He howls in pain, staggers backwards over the river bottom, and finally collapses in the murky water, unconscious. Sixshot, after his shot, suffered a massive overload; He never even realized how much his hull was taking water; and if he didn't escape now; He'd be stuck underneath the surface until captured no doubt. His form kicks out of the pistol mode and transforms into the starfighter; and than the thrusters exploded outwards with thick collumns of fire as he streaked and pitched sideways; waves collapsing into themself as the water begins to close around him; but in the last moment; he escapes the waves and fires off towards orbit. Sixshot transforms into the Starfighter mode. Combat: Sixshot begins retreating, outrunning all pursuit.